The thread about which club people would like to buy brings up a question in my head regarding who currently owns all the EL clubs.
Not who specifically, but are they owned privately and operated as a Limited Company or PLC or are they fan owned like Harps, Rovers and others. And who actually owns some of the lower Div 1 clubs like Mons, Kildare, Kilkenny? Probably run by committees who raise the cash for the team, but who actually owns the entity and elects or appoints the committee?
For example, Harps are owned by shareholders in a Co-Operative Society, who elect the board from the shareholders to run the club. Rovers seems to be something similar with the 400 Club Members electing the board. Whats the story with Bohs members club - I take it they elect the board too.
If clubs are privately owned are they entirely at the mercy of their owners, if their motives are suspect - as a lot of clubs with valuable land assets seems to have suddenly become of interest to new owners, while Shels owners seem to have sold their soul to similar interests.
Whats happened at Cork recently - has Lennox sold his control of the club entirely and who owns it now?
Galway have a lot of high profile business people listed on their Board of Directors, and I think their Supporters TRust have a percentage share of the club too, but who owns the thing at the end of the day.
Anybody able to correct or fill in the gaps in this list which is off the top of my head. Try and stick to facts rather than a thread of speculation and guesses.
Code:CLUB OWNERSHIP Drogheda Utd Private Owners / PLC Shamrock Rvs Members Club St Pats Ath Private Owner / PLC Cork City Private Owner / PLC Sligo Rovers Co-operative Bohemians Members Club Derry City Private Owner / PLC UCD College Club Galway United Private Owner / PLC Bray Wanderers ?? Waterford Utd ?? Longford Town Private Owner / PLC Cobh Ramblers Members Club Finn Harps Co-operative Dundalk Private Owner / PLC Limerick 37 Private Owner / PLC Shelbourne Private Owner / PLC Monaghan Utd ?? Athlone Town ?? Kildare County ?? Wexford Youths Private Owner / PLC Kilkenny City ??
I think Waterford are privately owned.. I certainly remember them doing a big share issue. I'm not sure what Limerick's status is- are they owned by the Junior League or something?
#NeverStopNotGivingUp
a board of directors, employed by the investment company
St Pats:
Private company, now owned 100% by Garreth Kelleher or his company Shelbourne Developments. First time in the history of the club that it's not owned by supporters of the club but no one seems to mind.
Before Kelleher the club was owned approx 60% by Gerry Mulvey, 30% by Andy O'Callaghan and 10% by a number of others including former board members. Before that it was owned approx 75% owned by Tim O'Flaherty.
Last edited by Stato; 19/09/2007 at 12:16 PM.
GUFC is owned a private company, Galway Football Ltd. The shares are held by a number of individuals on behalf of the wider football community.
The Galway and District League own 30% of GUFC. Galway United Supporters Trust have no shareholding at the present time.
Waterford are a plc since they floated a few years back. The other clubs you have down as plcs should be Ltds (except the ones I've noted below). Just a technical correction though.
Bray, Kildare and Kilkenny are also private companies (Ltds). Monaghan, Athlone and Longford are partnerships.
What is meant by partnership here stu?
#NeverStopNotGivingUp
A partnership is a legal body, usually used by accountancy firms and legal firms. All moneys come in, and all partners share the profits out equally at the end of the year. (They don't have to take it, just know that it's shared).
In practical terms, there's no annual accounts filed and, usually, there's no limited liability.
Partnerships are owned by the partners on whatever basis is agreed among them. So very similar in structure to a limited company, but basically without the filing requirements of one, and similar little differences.
Are you sure it has to be 'equally'? I was a partner in a such a body once and I seem to remember our accountant advising us that we could share it anyway we wanted as long as it was agreed between all partners.
You can see why the absence of a filing requirement would be attractive in an EL context.
A patriot is someone who knows how to hate his country properly.
Yes- but the lack of limited liability mightn't be so appealing!
As a matter of interest- what are the prerequisites to be a member of the members clubs- what's the yearly fee and can anyone at all join?
#NeverStopNotGivingUp
its owned by a holding company of which Mr Kelleher and his wife are sole directors and share holders. Its kept seperate from Shelbourne Developments.
And the club hasn't been owned by a fan in years and years. Only Andy O'Callaghan would be considered a Pats fan before he invested.
54,321 sold - wws will never die - ***
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The Drogs are currently owned by Vincent Hoey, Chris Byrne and Eugene O'Connor.
At the end of the season they will be owned by the revenue and the banks, apparently
Hunky Dorys Park - could be worse, we could be going to Old Trafford every other week
Don't quite understand what you mean Dodge, what then qualifies a person to be a "fan" of their club? Gerry Mulvey was a 500 Club member, came to practically every game with his wife and kids and set up and ran the forecast coupon before he ever invested a cent into shares. Maybe he's not on the scene as long as some of us but to me that still qualifies him as a supporter of the club before he invested.
I don't exactly know Tim O'Flaherty's background before he invested but I'm pretty sure he was supporting the club for years before he put his and his company's money in.
Before that a group of supporters (Phil Mooney, Tom McGibney, Richard Black, Ray Barry, Paul Garrigan and a few others) put their own money in to rescue the club from liquidation and get us back to Richmond Park.
As far as I can see the club has alwasy been under the control of supporters until GK took over.
Yeah, you're right. I just have a particularly jaundiced view of various boards in the past ten years. I appreciate I was being unkind to most of them, at least when they started their heart was in the right place. BTW John Doran's crowd were definitely NOT fans when they took over in 1991 (from which the group above (and several others including Brian Kerr) saved us)
54,321 sold - wws will never die - ***
---
New blog if anyone's interested - http://loihistory.wordpress.com/
LOI section on balls.ie - http://balls.ie/league-of-ireland/
A patriot is someone who knows how to hate his country properly.
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